The football marketing blog

The 2010 FIFA World Cup gave a boost to US audience

Hello everyone, Just noticed I have not posted in 4 days! I was working on some amazing projects and met up with really interesting sports professionals. One of them being Paul Smith, a great guy, and I invite you to visit his website. World Cup is over and I am scanning the web (not easy) to find relevant datas to share with you guys. One of them is (again) a The Nielsen Company survey pointing out that the 2010 World Cup contributed to a 22% increase compared to the previous World Cup for US viewers.

On June 26, Ghana defeated the US by 2-1 in Rustenburg. It was a new milestone in US football as The record viewership, which includes audiences watching on ABC and Univision, surpassed the previous high of 18.1 million viewers who watched the 1994 World Cup final between Brazil and Italy.

Overall, the US audience during the 2010 World Cup skyrocketed and reached a 112 Million viewers on english and spanish language network. According to The Nielsen Company it is a 22% increase compared to the 2006 World Cup which reached 91.4 million viewers. Nielsen’s research also emphasised on the fact that 57% of the total audience was male and 43% was female. Almost half (49%) of the total audience fell between the ages of 18 and 49.

Let me add a couple of elements: – The US are the 2009 Confederations Cup runner up, losing to Brazil 3-2 after a 2-0 up. – 1st of Group C at the 2010 World Cup. – The US is a bidding nation for the 2018-2022 FIFA World Cup. – Confirmed fantastic players (Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, etc…) and staff stability. – Thierry Henry joins the MLS, not as a marketing ploy but to play football and give a bigger impact on the field. – Massive ESPN coverage during the 2010 World Cup. – European football clubs summer touring in the US.

The list could go on, but my point being that US football is more and more positioning itself as a true football country. All these elements are self explanatory. There is still a lot to do however, as the recent appalling Thierry Henry interview from 2 Fox journalists still shows somehow a lack of interest and football knowledge. However, this poor interview is to me, not to be taken to illustrate how the US sports media are considering football. I do believe that Terry Baddoo or Pedro Pinto would have done a better job!